2020 Affinity Tele - total obduction

Just got me a 2020 Affinity Tele. Serial CSSC20xxxx, made in March 2020.

The design has changed a bit, as we all know, so I decided to take it apart to see what’s going on inside. Hopefully someone finds this even remotely useful.

So here it goes.

The box:



The wrap:



Off with wrap:



Moment before dismantling:



Serial etc:



The tuners, 10 mm hole:



Another picture:



Ferrules:



The bridge, string spacing is 52 mm:



Under the bridge and pickguard, neck with humbucker cavity, both pickups ceramic, bridge with metal plate:



To be continued...

 

Control plate with mini pots and cheap switch:



The neck cavity:



Neck with stamp:



Nut width ~41 mm:



Body thickness:



So there you have it. If you’ve got any questions or want some excact measurements or photos, feel free to ask.

 

Oh, the jack plate and jack was missing, can be seen in this one:



Btw, I changed the pickups while putting this one back to one piece. These came from 50s Vintera:



Had to carve the pickguard pup hole a bit, Vintera was about 2 mm wider than original.

When I compare this to CY (Yako made) 2019 Affinity Strat, the build quality is much better. Body feels solid and screws hold up nicely, which can’t be said about CY Strat.

Only thing that seems subpar is tuners. They feel a bit wobbly. Well, maybe they’ll settle.

Edit: the fingerboard is a maple slab. No skunk stripe.

 

Good call! Okay, at your discretion.

The plate is about 16 cm long:



Cavity: 14 cm x 2,7 cm. Depth at the deeper ends 3,6 cm, at the middle 2,6 cm.











The pot shaft holes are about 7 mm:



And the cavity will fit a CTS-pot, but you’ll probably have to change the plate, because the shaft won’t fit in to the holes:

 

Yep, I noticed the same. Way off!

 

Couldn’t take a proper photo, not gonna happen with phone. Should use SLR with macro...

Well, anyways, the carve of the neck profile starts very gently before the glue line. So there is somewhat of a shoulder.

 

I think it’s alder.

Even the good people @ Fender don’t seem to know what models they’re producing or selling:

https://shop.fender.com/en-US/squier-electric-guitars/telecaster/

They still have the older top-loader models listed.

Thomann OTOH (didn’t buy there) has some of the new CSS-Teles available with new pictures, so one can imagine the specs are up-to-date:

https://m.thomannmusic.com/fender_squier_affinity_tele_mn_aw.htm

It did cost me less than 200€s, so a bargain it is!

 

Okay guys. First major upgrade:

Tuners and electrics. One succeeded, one not quite.

The parts:



The tuners are Gotoh SG381-05LC.

6th changed:



Direct drop in. Only on 1st the hole for screw was bit misaligned. But nothing that some elbow grease couldn’t fix.

The happy outcome:





Had some difficulties with electrics. Bought Allparts control plate, 2x CTS solid shaft 250k pots and knobs. Of course Switchcraft jack included. Had some cloth wires and mustard style caps already at home. Too bad didn’t remember to buy a 3-way.

I had one 3-way around, came with AV ’59 strat. Well, there’s your solution! But for some reason it was a somekinda mirror image of all the normal Oak Grigsbys and CRLs I’ve seen. So a hour or two of trial and error. Finally had to put the original import style switch back until I can get my hands on a proper one.

Why no gut shots? I ran out of rosin, so my soldering was atleast horrible in the end, while trying to switch jumpers back and forth.

Okay, the plate went in quite nicely, a little offset on the holes:



And in the end:



The tuners are magnificent compared to the original. 1:16 ratio and no slack/looseness whatsoever. And just drop them in, no modding needed. Highly recommended!

Edit:

Link to the tuners in question:

https://g-gotoh.com/product/sg381/?lang=en

 

Yep, you’re right. First I just looked at some schematics and tried to mirror it. Then started thinking by myself (a big error) and tried to figure out how the jumpers should go. And running out of rosin (in the end had 1 cm left), I had to call defeat.

The switch ”upgrade”, well if I’ll stumble across one I’ll get one. Original works just fine. Just wanted to do the whole show.

I don’t think this Tele as a ”new” guitar, but a mod platform. Trial and error, and lots to fuss about. And if someone of you can get some advise about what’s inside, even better.

My 2 main Teles are keepers as they came from USA and Vintera ’50s is good with CS 51 nocaster pups. So, this one will be my playing ground!

 

Oak grigsby installed and some resoldering. Still a bit of a mess, but works nicely. Next stop will be cavity shielding.